Do Memory Lapses Mean Your Are Losing Your Brain?

If you’re over 55, you’ve probably experienced some lapses in memory. If you forget a thing or two, lose your keys, or misplace your glasses from time to time, don’t worry. Occasional lapses are a normal effect of decades of depreciation on the mechanisms of memory. All mechanisms fatigue over time, and your brain is no exception. However you can slow down deterioration with regular care and maintenance. If you tune your engine, rotate your tires, and change your oil on schedule, your car will run better and last longer. Let’s take a look at the mechanisms of memory, and what you can do to tune up your brain, prevent memory loss, and even increase cognitive function.

Your brain directs virtually all of your bodily functions as well as the processes of reasoning, learning, memory, speech, and emotional expression. Activity in the brain begins with electrical impulses that prompt the release of chemicals called neurotransmitters. These allow nerve cells to communicate with one another and form vast, branch-like networks that are the essence of thinking and memory.

Since your brain never really sleeps, it has enormous energy needs and a voracious appetite for oxygen. Although this organ weighs only three pounds, it uses a quarter of the oxygen you breathe. And when oxygen is metabolized in the nerve cells, free radicals are produced. Free radicals wreak havoc on tissues in the brain. Antioxidants protect your cells against free radical damage. Low blood levels of vitamins E and C have been linked to poor performance on tests of cognitive function and to increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, while antioxidant supplements have been shown to improve memory and mental function. In separate studies, vitamin E and coenzyme Q10 slowed the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, and vitamin C, when given to students with low blood levels of this nutrient, actually raised IQ!

One of the primary causes of age-related memory loss is reduced blood flow to the brain. The best way to ensure constant delivery of oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the brain is to take care of your cardiovascular system. Keep your blood pressure and cholesterol levels in the normal range, exercise, eat a heart-healthy diet and take supplements that improve blood flow and oxygen use.

Those supplements include extracts of Ginkgo biloba and vinpocetine, from the lesser periwinkle. Ginkgo and vinpocetine relax the walls of the blood vessels and discourage the clumping of platelets, particles in the blood that are incorporated into blood clots. Both of these compounds also have potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, and they have been shown to improve cerebral circulation and cognitive function, especially when there's reduced blood flow to the brain. Unfortunately a study that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association a while back, which concluded that Ginkgo biloba did not improve memory in healthy people over age 60 when taken for six weeks. Of course it didn’t. Six weeks is way too brief a period to study the efficacy of most herbs just like it is not sufficient for drug approval by the FDA. It's common knowledge that ginkgo in particular takes as long as 12 weeks to produce benefits.

Nothing is more devastating than a cerebrovascular accident, or stroke. Although uncontrolled hypertension is the most significant risk factor for stroke, elevated levels of homocysteine also dramatically increase risk. Homocysteine is a cellular toxin. It stimulates free radical damage, impairs circulation, and accelerates atherosclerosis throughout the body, including the brain. Excesses of homocysteine are also predictive of cognitive problems. In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers followed 1,092 older men and women for eight years and found that those with the highest homocysteine levels were most likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Having an elevated homocysteine level is like driving 50 miles an hour through stop signs—you’re an accident waiting to happen. There’s no excuse for blasting through stop signs, and there’s no excuse for having high homocysteine. It can easily be brought down with adequate doses of folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12. Food does not deliver these nutrients in amounts necessary to lower homocysteine so you must take these B-complex vitamins in supplement form.